Fic: Coming Apart (13/?) (Spoiler Warnings)

["buffythebushkangaroo" <buffythebushkangaroo@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Spoiler Warning.

Mild spoilers for episodes:

17 - Normal Again.
18 - Entropy
19 - Seeing Red
20 - Villains
21 - Two To Go
22 - Grave

...Within this series.

*hugs to... well, gosh! Everone!*

Hope you're still enjoying this...!

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Anne-Lise.

--

Giles closed his eyes as the rolling flames washed harmlessly over 
him. He was really getting too old for this. Willow's shields had 
protected them both, but he knew from experience the power she was 
drawing was more than she could handle. And the more she handled it, 
the greater the need to feel that power flow through you... Until you 
either destroyed yourself or everything around you. Yet he knew there 
was nothing he could do or say that would change anything. Or at 
least, nothing he would want to do or say.

*

"Hey... Buffy... Are you okay?" Xander's muffled voice grew in 
clarity as the concussion abated and her hearing came back.
"Mmm," she replied. "Xander..." Thoughts slowly made their way back 
into her head. "You were watching my back."
Xander wriggled from under her. "Its about all I can see right 
now," he griped.
Buffy pulled herself off of him. "Sorry..." She shook her head to 
clear away the dazed cobwebs. "Willow?" she shouted.
"We're okay," Willow's gorgeous voice came back. "Looks like the 
nerds are getting more daring." She jutted her chin. "Its time we 
gave them a spanking and take away their toys!"
"I'm okay," Giles said as he got to his feet. "Not that anyone seems 
to care," he added under his breath.
Buffy nodded. "We've got to find Spike... Preferably before 
sundown." Her face drew grim. "Its time to settle this, once and for 
all."
Giles sighed as Buffy turned to stare at the burning wreckage. "A 
woman scorned," he mused under his breath. Sirens caused him to raise 
his head. "We'd better go."
"Yeah," Xander agreed. "We've done enough damage here already."

*

Riley stood in front of Spike's crypt, a small device in his hands 
reminiscent of Ziggy from Quantum Leap. "No heat signatures," he 
muttered. "Human or otherwise."
Sam stepped forward and tried the door. It opened.
"Boys and their toys," she grinned and burst through the open 
doorway, drawing her gun in a fluid motion as she did so. Nothing 
happened. "Clear!" she exclaimed.
"You just love to boss me around, don't you?" They kissed.
"As you were, soldier!" Moonlight glinted from her smile.

*

"Its not the Slayer." Warren used a Thrustmaster joystick to zoom 
the surveillance cameras in on the intruder's face.
Spike glanced at the screen. "No, its her ex-boyfriend, Captain 
Cornflake."
"Who?" Andrew looked up from his keyboard.
Spike raised an eyebrow. "Riley... Finn. With two 'N's."
He watched as Andrew's fingers flew over the keyboard and details 
about Riley appeared on the screen. "Remind me again why I'm teaming 
up with you little nerds," he asked.
Warren didn't even dignify him with eye contact. "Because we can 
give you the Slayer's head on a plate," he reminded Spike. "Alone, 
you just seem to get your ass kicked. Like your girlfriend."
"Dru is *not* my girlfriend!" Spike roared. "She's just... 
available."
"Whatever," Warren muttered.

*

"What was that?" Sam asked and Riley froze, listening.
"What?"
Sam searched the corners of the crypt. "I heard electric motors," 
she said. "I think we're being watched.
Riley joined her in standard pattern recognition, searching the 
walls with his eyes. "I count three possible cameras."
"Four," Sam added. "That spiderplant is a little suspect for Spike's 
tastes, wouldn't you say?"
Riley agreed. From within the plant's foliage a light suddenly 
blinked red. "It's a bomb! Evac!"
They ran for the door, Sam clearing the doorway, Riley only 
marginally behind her when bomb exploded.

*

The second explosion gripped their attention.
"That was the graveyard," Xander interjected, unnecessarily.
Buffy's mouth tightened. "That's where Sam and Riley are." She 
broke into a run.

*

Warren monitored the cameras. "Right on schedule!" He crowed. "I 
told you! Use a decoy to get their attention, a second decoy to get 
them to investigate, and then kill them all while they stand there 
gawking!" he grinned. "The fact that her ex-boyfriend happened to be 
at the second decoy site just makes it all the more brilliant!" He 
flicked a switch, one that caused the bomb in the tomb a few hundred 
feet from Spike's crypt to activate and wait for instructions in 
a 'ready' mode.
"What's the range on that?" Andrew asked. "We don't want to let it 
off too early."
Warren looked up. "I wouldn't worry about it," he said. "There's 
more than enough punch to get the job done." He continued to stare 
intently at the monitor. "Way more."

*

End Part 13.